Archive for the ‘awesomeness’ Category
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“BIG BANG BIG BOOM: an unscientific point of view on the beginning & evolution of life … & how it could probably end.”
7th July 10
Posted in animation, awesomeness, online video
Everything about this is excellent. And it just gets bigger & better . . .
BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
direction and animation by BLU
blublu.org
production and distribution by ARTSH.it
artsh.it
sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI -
‘Summer Hours’, a short film about warm sun, cool water & a few mosquitoes, by Jeff Scher
6th July 10
Posted in animation, awesomeness, online video
“Do what we can, summer will have its flies:
if we walk in the woods, we must feed mosquitoes:
if we go a-fishing, we must expect a wet coat.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was lucky enough to meet Jeff Scher this weekend, a ridiculously talented & leftfield painter, animator and experimental film maker from DUMBO, in Brooklyn. Jeff’s works are in MoMA, and have been screened at film festivals around the world. He also teaches at the School of Visual Arts and at N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts. I knew we were going to get on when – within 10 seconds of meeting, literally – he was walking me through his top 10 photography apps for the iPhone. I had no idea my collection of apps was so conservative. (One ‘app’ consisted entirely of wobbling the iPhone violently during the shot, creating a weird kind of trippy effect as the camera’s software corrects for the distortion – try it; it’s cool how the iPhone tries to make sense of it).
A selection of his films, “The Best of Times,” was just published as an iPhone and iPad app.
Anyway, take a look at this, below. It’s beautiful, emotive and perfectly captures the magic of my favourite time of year: summer. More details about the film, in Jeff’s own words (as originally published in the NYT) are below the film on the NYT site. (click to play). Music is by Shay Lynch.
Take a look at all Jeff’s work – http://fezfilms.net/
This is one of my favourites of his previous films, ‘L’eau Life’.
And if you’re into it and want to find out more about Jeff, here’s a 5 minute documentary piece on YouTube.
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How the CIA define problems & plan solutions: The Phoenix Checklist
1st June 10
Posted in awesomeness, process
In a recent BBH Labs post (Wind Tunnel Marketing, The Sequel: On the Need for Divergent Insight) that talked about the need for divergent thinking and stimulus in approaching problem solving (& creative ideation), Chaz Wigley, the Chairman of BBH in Asia Pacific, mentioned how the CIA‘s (I’ve always wanted to link to the CIA) Problem Definition Checklist provoked precisely this kind of approach; rounded, many-faceted, flexible.
These questions are known as “context-free questions” and are designed “to encourage agents to look at a challenge from many different angles. Using Phoenix is like holding your challenge in your hand. You can turn it, look at it from underneath, see it from one view, hold it up to another position, imagine solutions, and really be in control of it” (see the excellent, if chewy, paper on Exploring Exploratory Testing, for more here).
We now have from Chaz not only the list of questions the CIA use to define problems, but also (thanks to Iqbal Mohammed) the follow-up list they use to develop the plan. Which seems kind of important too.
My personal favourite question in the problem definition list is the somewhat open-ended: ‘what isn’t the problem?’.
Enjoy.
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THE PROBLEM
Why is it necessary to solve the problem?
What benefits will you receive by solving the problem?
What is the unknown?
What is it you don’t yet understand?
What is the information you have?
What isn’t the problem?
Is the information sufficient? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?
Should you draw a diagram of the problem? A figure?
Where are the boundaries of the problem?
Can you separate the various parts of the problem? Can you write them down? What are the relationships of the parts of the problem? What are the constants of the problem?
Have you seen this problem before?
Have you seen this problem in a slightly different form? Do you know a related problem?
Try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar unknown
Suppose you find a problem related to yours that has already been solved. Can you use it? Can you use its method?
Can you restate your problem? How many different ways can you restate it? More general? More specific? Can the rules be changed?
What are the best, worst and most probable cases you can imagine?THE PLAN
Can you solve the whole problem? Part of the problem?
What would you like the resolution to be? Can you picture it?
How much of the unknown can you determine?
Can you derive something useful from the information you have?
Have you used all the information?
Have you taken into account all essential notions in the problem?
Can you separate the steps in the problem-solving process? Can you determine the correctness of each step?
What creative thinking techniques can you use to generate ideas? How many different techniques?
Can you see the result? How many different kinds of results can you see?
How many different ways have you tried to solve the problem?
What have others done?
Can you intuit the solution? Can you check the result?
What should be done? How should it be done?
Where should it be done?
When should it be done?
Who should do it?
What do you need to do at this time?
Who will be responsible for what?
Can you use this problem to solve some other problem?
What is the unique set of qualities that makes this problem what it is and none other?
What milestones can best mark your progress?
How will you know when you are successful? -
Violently elemental. Yet beautiful. Time-lapse of Eyjafjallajökull erupting, May 2010
14th May 10
Posted in awesomeness, music, online video
During the eruption of the volcano that no one can pronounce (or barely even spell) Sean Stiegemeier took his Canon 5D Mark II out and produced this rather ace short film, set to music sung by Jónsi (lead singer of Icelandic band Sigur Rós).
We like the ethereal music mashed up with something that is, essentially, destructive. Violently elemental. Yet beautiful.
For best effect set to HD and then go full-screen. Turn it up.
Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.
He notes on his Vimeo page (full of other very cool projects – check it out):
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“So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better. But the flights to get over took forever as expected (somewhat). 4 days after leaving I finally made it, but the weather was terrible for another 4. Just before leaving it got pretty good for about a day and a half and this is what I managed to get.
Wish I had more time. I missed all the cool Lightning and the Lava of the first eruption. But I figure this will just be a trial run for another day.
I am of course accepting sponsors to send me back there for more please…!! haha
Music: Jónsi – Kolniður (jonsi.com)
Canon 5d mkII
HUGE thanks for the Motorized Dolly via MILapse (vimeo.com/milapse). Details are to come soon so stay tuned…© Sean Stiegemeier
in-perfidia.com—
Many thanks to @finnbarrw for the heads-up.
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The Cool Hunting Cadillac iPad app in action
22nd April 10
Posted in awesomeness, design, technology
We recently announced our first iPad application, the Cool Hunting app initially presented by our client, Cadillac, and developed in partnership between Cool Hunting, BBH New York and Front Ended. If you missed our original post explaining the design challenges, take a look here.
For those who’ve not got their hands on an iPad yet, here’s a short film giving a taste of what it feels like to use. One thing we’ve noticed in using the iPad so far is that there’s quite a gulf in user experience between apps developed specifically for the iPad versus those developed for the iPhone.
This Coolhunting app is definitely in the latter category, and whilst we learned a huge amount about how we’d do things next time, we’re pleased with our first experiment on this newest of platforms.
Download the Cool Hunting app (here) and see what you think.
Cool Hunting / Cadillac iPad App from Steve Peck on Vimeo.
Thanks to @BBHNewYork’s @GriffinFarley for the prompting to post this.
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Myspace Fan Video & The Webbys
20th April 10
Posted in awesomeness, creativity
Posted by Dean Woodhouse, Creative, BBH London
Our MySpace Fan Video campaign (which Fran shared here a few months back) has been nominated for a People’s Choice Award at this year’s Webbys, which we’re just a little excited about. And yes, this is an unashamed plug and request for your support.
The category is Best use of Online Media, this is the Myspace entry. All you need to do is sign-up (it takes 20 seconds) and then you get an email that lets you vote.
Whilst we’re here, it would be wrong not to mention our friends at BBH Shanghai’s awesome WWF Fate’s in your Hands in Experimental & Innovation, BBH NY’s Google Chrome in Online Commercials, BBH NY’s Axe Balls in Viral Marketing and Hal & Masa’s (BBH NY) promo video for Sour’s ‘Hibi No Neiro’ in Best Editing.
We’re up against good work from some great agencies like W+K, TBWA, AKQA and Glue, so a win would feel even better.
Deadline for voting is 29th April, so not long to go.
THANKS very much for your support.
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Introducing The Barn – BBH New York’s New Internship Program
13th April 10
Posted in awesomeness
Posted by: Heidi Hackemer, Planning Director, BBH New York
Just about nothing consumes us more than making sure we have the right people working here at BBH.
So this summer we’re excited to be hosting the beta of The Barn, our new agency internship program, run by three of BBH New York’s finest Barn Masters, Heidi Hackemer, Richard Schatzberger & Dane Larsen. The idea behind it is simple: get some smart people in here, house them in groups of three and have them work together all summer. We’re not recruiting by discipline; rather we’re looking for smart, fun, positive, lover-of-ideas types who get into brand, culture and communication, and can work collaboratively.
The Barn itself is one part Harry Potter, one part Golden Girls, one part Dragon’s Den and one part Lady Gaga.
Harry Potter (community)
We’re taking in six candidates – the six will be split into houses of three. Their house is their life and the houses will live on to the next term when we get a new set of interns.
Golden Girls (support)
The houses will each have an agency advisor and will also work on two pieces of business each – i.e. plenty of people throughout the agency overseeing them, helping them and teaching them about different facets of all things BBH.
Dragons’ Den (competition)
In addition to the warm and fuzzy client business, each house will get a bespoke brief upon arrival that they will work on all summer. At the end of the term, the houses will present their solution in an open forum against the other house to BBH bigwigs and clients.
Lady Gaga (fame)
The houses won’t only be judged on their immediate solution, but also on how well they blast their BBH experience out during the term.
We’re starting the inaugural class with a group of six: three interns from our 4A’s partnership, three from the open recruit. Then we’ll mix up 4A’ers with the open recruits into the houses. Check out the application site at http://www.bbhbarn.com/, follow on Twitter @bbhbarn.
Applications are due April 22nd at 6:00 pm.
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Introducing the Cool Hunting iPad app, with Cadillac
1st April 10
Posted in awesomeness, design, technology
Author: John Sheldon, Director of Brand Dialogue, BBH New York
(This is an updated version of a post from 04.01.10)
There is nothing like working on a completely new platform to get everyone energized and excited.
Everyone here at BBH has been super excited about the opportunities that Apple’s new iPad will open up. We have just announced our first iPad application, the Cool Hunting app initially presented by our client, Cadillac, and developed in partnership between Cool Hunting, BBH and Front Ended.
Here it is. Well, a very static image of what it will look like.
Working with Josh and the team at Cool Hunting was really important in this project. We took their vast library of the latest in design, technology and culture and aligned – and spliced – it with a number of stories and facets about the vehicles.
It was a really interesting challenge from a design perspective. The “creative ambition” was to create a groundbreaking experience for consuming content on the iPad – one that becomes multidimensional with articles, photos, and videos in ways that were never possible before on the web or in the mobile space. We also wanted to propose a new advertising model for publications for the device – one that avoids slapping display advertising on everything and instead envelops the most appropriate and desired content for people. So we’re putting the brand in right place in providing great content to people rather than distracting them from it.
For the initial client/sponsor, Cadillac, this approach would allow the Cool Hunting team to curate and deliver specific content in new, more relevant, and more innovative ways. The muse for the curation is the very sexy new CTS Coupe and CTS-V Coupe vehicles that Cadillac is slated to release in mid-summer. Building excitement around these vehicles and garnering handraisers for additional information are key goals for the brand.
The design process took six weeks (late nights and every weekend included). Our team ranks this among the most challenging design they had ever taken on. The interesting aspect is that you have to design everything twice – both for the landscape and the vertical layout. And that doesn’t mean the layout changes visually, because we actually changed the experience based on how you were holding the device.
The goal was to incite users to interact with the design as opposed to just looking at it. For example, the default article view allows users to choose how they would most like to consume the content. So we enable more choices based on how people want to view or read the articles. This makes the interaction and visual design process incredibly more complex, but opens up a multitude of new opportunities.
The other part of the design and development challenge was putting together this app for a touch-based interaction in a platform that uses keyboard and mouse as the primary interfacing tools.
Working with the great guys at Front-ended to get it developed and App store approval-ready in short order was only possible through embracing a genuinely iterative and collaborative approach across all partners and client. Iterating between app designers, brand teams and developers daily made sure the final App met the needs of the sponsor, the technological benchmarks and the editorial approach of Cool Hunting.
Many of us are awaiting delivery of our iPads this weekend (our Director of Creative Technology, Richard Schatzberger, spent two hours on iPad release day refreshing his browser literally every second). And we can’t wait to see how other brands are going to find creative ways to take advantage of this new platform.
We know we have a whole bunch to learn about what’s possible, but weíre pleased our learning curve has been steep in the last few months. We like it that way.
In readiness for your iPad deliveries this Saturday, download the Cool Hunting app (here) and give it a look. We’d be interested to know what you think.
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The Joy of SXSW
26th March 10
Posted in awesomeness, interactive
This post is adapted from an article written for Campaign magazine (25.03.10), available online at campaignlive.co.uk next week.
SXSW banners outside Austin's conference centre (image by Ben Shaw)
South by Southwest, or SXSW as it likes to be referred to, has celebrated emerging film and music for over two decades, but 2010 was the year the Interactive component of the conference shifted up a gear and gained critical mass. Last week around 15,000 people descended on the city of Austin in Texas for 5 days of neck-deep immersion in progressive digital culture.
Despite its mind-blowing scale, a few key themes emerged for us from SXSWi’s smorgasbord of panels and presentations. Read full post
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Getting to know your Twitter followers & why that matters
8th March 10
Posted in awesomeness, data
Last week Aaron Richard (@ralphthemagi) contacted us at BBH Labs with something pretty cool, and we wanted to share it.
Aaron was most recently a digital strategist at Big Spaceship in Brooklyn. A while back Aaron created a map showing where @bigspaceship’s many thousands of followers lived (or claimed to live). I contacted Michael Lebowitz at BS and asked how they’d done it . . . a few days later Aaron wrote to us with our very own version of the data, mapped and analyzed. Brilliant.
Aaron goes into great detail on his site about how he did this, the problems he encountered, the choices he made in filtering, and so on. In short, he used the publicly accessible Twitter API combined with cURL software to play around with the data shared by our c.12,600 followers on Twitter.
After some fairly smart sounding parsing of the follower base to weed out spammers (or at least people who looked most like spammers) and non-actives (see his post for the detail) Aaron pulled down the following public data on each of the remaining followers.
- ID
- Name
- Username
- Location
- Profile Bio
- Profile Picture
- Web URL
- Privacy Settings
- # of Followers
- # of Friends (“following”)
- Account Creation Date
- # of Favorites
- UTC Offest
- Time Zone
- Per-tweet Geolocation Status
- Verified User Status
- # of Tweets
He then used one of Google’s Lab projects, Fusion Tables, to geo-code the massive amount of information he had in CSV form.
The result was two forms of map. First, a fully interactive Google map (launch it and take a look, click on the dots for detail), and second a heatmap showing concentration of followers by major cities. With the interactive map it’s possible to click on a follower and see the data that Twitter holds for them (which is a little scary, but I guess comes with the territory).
Aaron also looked at our follower data and pulled put out some insight about our followers, which we found fascinating.
- Average # of followers: 1,746 | Median: 163
- Average # of friends: 982 | Median: 206
- Average # of tweets: 987 | Median: 247
- 6% of followers keep their tweets private
- 9% have per-tweet geolocation enabled
- 12 followers are “verified”
As Aaron notes, one can see by the deltas between means and medians, all followers are not created equal.
So all this is fascinating to us (for example, to learn that @bigspaceship and @BBHLabs share the same two followers in Iceland . . . hi Islenka and Finnur). But I wanted to see what additional uses might be made of this kind of data and insight. For example, for brands, or for non-profits, or just for individuals. I pinged Aaron a few questions on this theme:
BBH LABS: So Aaron, thanks for this – this is fantastic. But thinking more broadly of potential uses of this kind of insight for marketers, brands and individuals, how do you think this might be used in a more applied way?
AARON: I think this kind of information can be used for setting better goals. Asking better questions and finding better answers. I think a lot of brand teams have this preconceived notion that they are using social media effectively if they have a lot of fans, followers, etc … I just don’t think that’s true.
BBH LABS: Give us some examples of what you mean.
AARON: The particular data set I pulled for BBH could be used in a number of ways. For example, say you wanted to give away something to a few Twitter followers with the goal of growing your network. Send them an iPod Shuffle, get them to tweet about it, drive a little positive PR. But how would you decide who to give stuff to if you wanted to maximize every give away? Well, with data like this you could easily find the top 20 people with the most followers and target them. Or look at the top 50 people with the most followers, then look at those with who have the least number of tweets (there’s something interesting about people with a lot of followers and few tweets, because when they do tweet their message tends to get retweeted a lot and cuts through the clutter).
BBH LABS: And for brands, can you give us an example of how they might make use of this? Maybe to make their stream more relevant? Maybe to get closer to their most valuable customers?
AARON: Sure. You can start to see how you might use this kind of information to challenge large incumbent brands. Imagine you wanted to take on Comcast as a small regional ISP. You could pull the data for everyone who follows Comcast Cares [on Twitter] then look at all the people in your region and start following them or sending them public messages. You could even target the people who are pissed off at Comcast and give them a special offer. Dell Outlet [on Twitter] has +1.5m followers. That’s 1.5m potential new customers for HP, if they provide the right incentive to get a customer to switch.
BBH LABS: This is only one particular series of API calls, as you point out. What else can you envisage coming out of the Twitter API?
AARON: Absolutely, this is really just one tiny piece of the data that’s available. I did this more for fun and to get a better idea of how to manage large API pulled data sets than I did to answer a specific question. Twitter has calls for search, tweets, retweets, lists, etc.. If, for example, you wanted to track something like brand mentions you could do that—and not just by using the regular old search.twitter.com or paying for something like radian6 (who’d never give you the raw data). You could look at all tweets by keyword, replies, retweets, etc., and then figure out who’s saying these things, where they live, and what (or who) they have in common.
I’m going to do a followup to this that talks about how to use API data in a more tactical way, using Facebook (and probably Coke) as an example to find the answer to things like, “What day of the week should I post something in order to maximize likes, comments, etc.?”
BBH LABS: Thanks again Aaron. Keep us in the loop. We’re keen to learn more as we go.
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If you have any questions for Aaron feel free to post them under this post, or on Aaron’s own blog.
Ben Malbon
Mel Exon
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